Lot 1045. A rare blue and white 'boys’ dish, Wanli six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period (1573-1619); 17.8 cm diam., cloth box. Price realised USD 63,000 (Estimate USD 7,000 – USD 10,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: Private collection, Kyoto, formed primarily in the 18th century.
The Peony Pavilion Collection; Christie’s London, 12 June 1989, lot 285.
David Ho, Oriental Art, Sydney.
Sotheby's Amsterdam, 28 November 2000, lot 353.
Ben Janssens Oriental Art, London.
The Collection of Albert and Leonie Van Daalen, Geneva.
Christie’s London, 5 November 2019, lot 26.

Note: The depiction of children at play is a visually pleasing, auspicious subject matter that was popular in Chinese art during the Ming dynasty. The subject has its roots in Buddhist beliefs, influenced by Daoism, but by the Tang dynasty (AD 618-907) had become a secular theme associated with the auspicious wish for sons and grandsons. One boy on this dish is depicted holding a lotus stem and this may be a rebus or visual pun. The word for lotus in Chinese is lian which is a homophone for a word meaning continuous or successive, and when combined with a boy suggests the successive birth of sons and grandsons.

While boys at play was a favorite subject during the Ming dynasty, the charming scene on the present dish, sometimes referred to as 'blind man's bluff', is rare. A pair of dishes with the same scene is illustrated by B. McElney in The Museum of East Asian Art Inaugural Exhibition, Volume I, Chinese Ceramics, Bath, 1993, p. 204, no. 157.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, New York, 23 March - 24 March 2023